Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince may be missing from the holiday season, but there are still plenty of VFX goodies, ranging from the CG facial capture aging of Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is also the prime Best Picture contender; Frank Miller channeling Will Eisner for his next-gen treatment of The Spirit; a 21st century organic take on The Day the Earth Stood Still with all the CG bells and whistles; all the CG heroics that Adam Sandler can muster in his Bedtime Stories; and raising the Bond bar beyond Bourne in Quantum of Solace. VFXWorld offers a glimpse of some of the most anticipated movies we'll be covering this holiday season.

An aging Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (left) and work on the sci-fi remake The Day the Earth Stood Still promise to be highlights of this year’s holiday season vfx. © Paramount (left) and Twentieth Century Fox.

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount Pictures, Dec. 25)
Director and former ILMer David Fincher tackles F. Scott Fitzgerald's novella about a unique man (Brad Pitt) born in his 80s during World War I and ages backwards all the way to the 21st century. His life is complicated enough without falling in love with Cate Blanchett. Digital Domain handled the CG challenge of aging Pitt to complement the special makeup (including a CG head on another body: see above image). Eric Barba (Zodiac) and Dan Abrams (Monster House) served as vfx supervisor and CG supervisor, respectively.

2. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Twentieth Century Fox, Dec. 12)
Director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) reworks the '51 sci-fi classic from Robert Wise with a more sinister alien Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), a more environmental theme, and more organic ship and Gort robot. Weta Digital performs primary vfx duties with additional work from Cinesite and Jeff Okun serving as the overall visual effects supervisor.

Frank Miller makes his directorial debut with The Spirit (left) while Bedtime Stories follows Adam Sandler's outlandish tall tales. © Lionsgate (left) and © Disney.

3. The Spirit (Lionsgate, Dec. 25)
Frank Miller makes his solo directorial debut adapting Will Eisner's pulpy crime story about a rookie cop (Gabriel Macht) who returns from the dead to battle the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). The Orphanage is the lead house under Stu Maschwitz's supervision with help by Entity FX and others. By the looks of it, The Spirit is a next-gen, stylistic flourish in the vein of Sin City and 300, leveraging greenscreen shooting techniques with synthetic environments and other dramatic vfx.

4. Bedtime Stories (Walt Disney Pictures, Dec. 25)
Adam Sandler's outlandish tall tales to his niece and nephew about being a gladiator, cowboy and having an alien encounter start to magically come true in slapstick fashion, with CG characters and environmental support from Cinesite, Tippett and others.